First of all, anyone with the Seagate FreeAgent, 5 year warranty USB drives... They may actually last a year or less. If they click a lot, think about replacing it before total drive melt down. I was lucky, all data saved before it started to have major problems. The 1.5TB drives are the worst.

Interesting that the Seagate FreeAgent USB powered small drives are so problem free. I now have two, and have had the first one for couple years, been trouble free.

I replaced it with a Western Digital Essentials. Only if I know then what I know now, would have saved me a lot of hassles. An hour long phone call with Western Digital, and I got it. It was in front of me all the time at the Western Digital website.

I picked the WD Essentials because I thought it was a quality level higher than WD Elements. Essentials has a strong backup software suite, and it isn't really suited to those who are looking for simple storage. With one WD Essentials, works fine. But the WD Essential software/hardware prevents you from accessing more than one Essential drive at a time. Confirmed by WD.

The WD Elements is the simple drive, no backup software. It is slightly cheaper, and not a quality difference with the Essentials. You can have more than one Elements drive connected at a time. WD also stated you can have multiple Element drives with a single Essentials drive.

The WD drives are quiet, do not click like the Seagate Drive. It will be a year before I can recommend them (experience with drive needed)